


Accipiter

by Chordewa



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Death, Gore, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 05:05:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8314960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chordewa/pseuds/Chordewa
Summary: A short AU where Madara is a tengu and Hashirama is literally a tree.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago for tumblr, but never posted here.

Destruction comes to the forest on two legs, blundering through the undergrowth, flattening plants and crushing habitats. The hungry roar of the chainsaw smothers the other sounds that should be in its place. Trees die and fall to human greed, crashing down to earth. The forest is silent.

Silent, but watchful. Knowing. The trees whisper, messages carried along the web of fungi entangled around their roots, spreading warnings of the intruders from one end of the forest to the other.

The forest strikes back when one human marks out a grand old cedar tree as the next to die. It is tall and strong and has sat, quietly making sunlight into food and watching the comings and goings of everything that walks or crawls or flies beneath its canopy, for a long time. Around the trunk hangs the rotted remains of a straw rope. This is ignored. The human snaps it off and lets it fall to the floor, sizing up where to cut. He adjusts his safety goggles and starts up the chainsaw.

Before the destruction can begin, there is a scream of fury from above. The human doesn’t hear it, but the rest of the forest does, and the rest of the forest trembles. A squirrel darts down the trunk, its eyes bulging and its fur standing on on end. It leaps and lands on the human’s shoulder. He yells, chainsaw falling to the ground as little claws press against his skin and the squirrel begins to burrow its way down his back. “What the fuck, _fucking_ get off!” the human shrieks pointlessly, hopping around on one leg. It shoves off the hard hat to get better access to the squirrel, the rough movement sends both hat and goggles skittering to the ground.

This is when the forest strikes.

The scream sounds again, and this time the human hears, but too late. There’s a blur of dark feathers and strangely glittering eyes before the wings are beating at his face and the talons are grasping and tearing at his skin. The scaly feet press over the fragile skin of eyelids and curl inwards, puncturing.

Screams of a different sort echo through the trees now, every sob only adding to the pain as the human curls into a ball with his hands clamped over his eyes. The squirrel emerges and bounds away, all innocence. The hawk snatches it up, almost as an afterthought, just before other humans arrive to collect the wounded one. When he’s gone, the earth is soaked with blood.

Hashirama finds it quite nourishing. A little blood now and then is good for his roots, as Madara knows well.

Up in the branches of the great cedar tree, the pair of them sit; two beings that look like men. Hashirama lounges against the trunk, looking down with a thoughtful expression. “Do you think they’ll come back?”

Madara turns the dead squirrel over over in his hands, running a taloned fingernail over its stomach. “Probably.” He scowls down at the forest floor below, recalling the acidic fear that had swept through him when it seemed the chainsaw would be turned on Hashirama. “I’ll do the same again.” Clutching the squirrel, he brings it up to his mouth and bites into the grey-brown hide, tearing away a red gobbet of flesh, chewing noisily.

Hashirama smiles and leans his head against Madara’s shoulder, waiting for the sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bones to subside. Madara is very fussy about being touched while he’s eating. Hashirama, who doesn’t eat like the tengu does, doesn’t quite understand. They’ve reached a compromise: Madara will allow Hashirama to lean against him, since _it’s only fair, you touch me every time you perch_.

Once every bit of the squirrel has been devoured, Hashirama tangles his fingers into the long, matted strands  of Madara’s hair and licks the blood from around his mouth. “Thank you for defending me,” he says, before kissing the other spirit deeply.

Madara returns the kiss with equal enthusiasm, but when they break apart, he makes a point of muttering, “You must have termites in your brain if you thought it was about you. Where would I go if they cut you down? You’re…my home,” he finishes, looking rather flustered.

Hashirama presses their foreheads together, smiling and says, “I love you too, featherbrain.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tengu love to set shit on fire, and they also hate woodcutters. You're supposed to leave offerings for them first, but outside, where they won't set your house on fire.


End file.
